Frances Mayes
Frances Mayes (born April 4, 1940)Frances Mayes, Authors, Brainyquote. Web, Sep. 17, 2016. is an American poet, essayist, novelist, and academic. Life Mayes was born and raised in Fitzgerald, Georgia. She attended Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, and earned a B.A. from the University of Florida. In 1975 she earned a M.A. from San Francisco State University, where she eventually became Professor of Creative Writing, director of The Poetry Center, and chair of the Department of Creative Writing. In 1996 she published Under the Tuscan Sun: At home in Italy. The book is a memoir of Mayes buying, renovating, and living in an abandoned villa in rural Cortona in Tuscany, a region of Italy. It went to #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list and remained on the list for over two years. In 1999, Mayes followed this literary success with another international bestseller, Bella Tuscany: The sweet life in Italy, and in 2000 with In Tuscany. Mayes's debut novel, Swan, was published in 2002. With her husband, Edward Kleinschmidt Mayes, and photographer Steven Rothfeld, she published the phototext Bringing Tuscany Home in 2004. Also a food-and-travel writer, Mayes is the editor of The Best American Travel Writing 2002 and the author of A Year in the World: Journeys of A Passionate Traveller (2006), narratives of her and her husband's travels in Greece, Turkey, Spain, Morocco and other countries. Now writing full time, she and her poet husband divide their time between homes in Hillsborough, North Carolina, and Cortona, Italy, where she serves as the artist director of the annual Tuscan Sun Festival.Cortona Events: Tuscan Sun Festival 2005 cortonaweb.net. Retrieved 2008-10-13. A new memoir "Every Day in Tuscany" was released in March, 2010. Writing New Georgia Encyclopedia: "Many of her poems explore the rich, complex landscape of her childhood home in south Georgia, a hierarchical world where class, race, and gender determine roles in small-town life. In other works Mayes writes about landscapes far removed from the South, sometimes fusing the two seemingly disparate worlds. She moves easily from exterior to interior landscapes, examining issues of identity, relationships, death, and loneliness. For Mayes, memory creates another landscape that colors the present."Mae Miller Claxton, Frances Mayes (b. ca. 1940), New Georgia Encyclopedia, Georgia Humanities Council/University of Georgia Press. Web, Mar. 17, 2013. Recognition In 2003 the film Under the Tuscan Sun was released. Adapted to the screen by director Audrey Wells, the movie was loosely based on Mayes's book. Billy Collins included her poem "Sister Cat" in his 2003 anthology, Poetry 180."Sister Cat," Poetry 180, Poetry and Literature, Library of Congress. Web, Aug. 2, 2018. Publications Poetry *''Climbing Aconcagua''. New York : Seven Woods Press, 1977. *''Sunday in Another Country''. Woodside, CA: Heyeck Press, 1977. *''January 6, Quarter of Four''. Woodside, CA: Heyeck Press, 1978. *''After Such Pleasures''. New York: Seven Woods Press, 1979. *''The Arts of Fire''. Woodside, CA: Heyeck Press, 1982. *''Three Poems''. Woodside, CA: Heyeck Press, 1982. *''Hours''. Providence, RI: Lost Roads, 1984. *''Ex Voto''. Barrington, RI: Lost Roads, 1995. *''The Book of Summer''. Woodside, CA: Heyeck Press, 1995. Novel *''Swan: A novel''. New York: Broadway Books, 2002 Non-fiction *''Under the Tuscan Sun: At home in Italy''. New York: Broadway Books, 1996. *''Bella Tuscany: The sweet life in Italy''. New York: Broadway Books, 1999. *''In Tuscany''. New York: Broadway Books, 2000. *''The Discovery of Poetry: A field guide to reading and writing poems''. San Diego: Harcourt, 2001. *''Bringing Tuscany Home: Sensuous style from the heart of Italy'' (with Edward Mayes; with photos by Steven Rothfeld). New York: Broadway Books, 2004. *Steven Rothfeld, Shrines: Images of Italian worship (with text by Mayes), New York: Doubleday, 2005. ISBN 978-0-385-51887-1 *''A Year in the World: Journeys of a passionate traveller''. New York: Broadway Books, 2006. *''Greek Expectations: The adventures of fearless Fran in the land of the gods''. Milton Keynes, UK: AuthorHouse, 2008. *''Everyday in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian life''. New York: Broadway Books, 2010. *''The Passionate Traveller Journal''. New York: Random House, 2011.Frances Mayes, Random House. Web, Mar. 17, 2013. *''The Tuscan Sun Cookbook: Recipes from our Italian kitchen''. New York: Clarkson Potter, 2012. *''Under Magnolia: A southern memoir''. New York: Crown, 2014. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Frances Mayes, WorlCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Sep. 17, 2016. Audio / video *''Frances Mayes'' (cassette). Mission Viejo, CA: Replay, 1998? *Rebecca Bain, A Conversation with Frances Mayes (VHS). Lexington, KY: Kenticky Educational Television, 1999. Except where noted, discographical information courtesy WorldCat. See also *List of U.S. poets References External links ;Poems *"Sister Cat" at Poetry 180 *[http://www.webdelsol.com/Lost_Roads/mayes.htm Five poems from Ex Voto] at Web del Sol ;Quotes *Frances Mayes at Brainyquote ;Audio / video *Frances Mayes at YouTube ;Books *Frances Mayes at Amazon.com ;About *Frances Mayes at Georgia Center for the Book. *Frances Mayes in the New Georgia Encyclopedia. *In Print: Southern Comforts at Randolph College *"It Takes a Villa" at SFSU Magazine Online. *Frances Mayes Official website and weblog * Category:American poets Category:American essayists Category:American novelists Category:American academics Category:Writers from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Alumni of women's universities and colleges Category:San Francisco State University faculty Category:University of Florida alumni Category:San Francisco State University alumni Category:People from Hillsborough, North Carolina Category:Living people Category:People from Fitzgerald, Georgia Category:1940 births Category:20th-century poets Category:20th-century women writers Category:21st-century women writers Category:American women writers Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Women poets